Engineering Research Centers

The NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) program supports convergent research, education, and technology translation at U.S. universities that will lead to strong societal impacts.

Each ERC has interacting foundational components that go beyond the research project, including engineering workforce development at all participant stages, a culture of diversity and inclusion where all participants gain mutual benefit, and value creation within an innovation ecosystem that will outlast the lifetime of the ERC.

Since the program's start in 1985, NSF has funded 73 ERCs throughout the United States. NSF supports each center for up to 10 years. This investment has led to many successes:

more than 200 spinoff companies,

more than 850 patents,

more than 13,500 total bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees to ERC students, and

numerous research outcomes enabling new technologies

Over the years, the ERC program has adapted to meet the nation's future workforce and technological needs. In late fiscal year (FY) 2020, NSF will launch the 4th generation of centers, known as Gen-4 ERCs.

Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies North Carolina State University in partnership with Florida International University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of VirginiaASSIST harnesses nanotechnology to improve global health by enabling correlation between personal health and personal environment and by empowering patients and doctors to manage wellness and improve quality of life.

Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired GeotechnicsArizona State University in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology, New Mexico State University, and the University of California, DavisCBBG employs or mimics natural biological processes and materials to engineer the ground in ways that reduce infrastructure development lifecycle costs and impacts while mitigating natural hazards and environmental degradation.

Center for Cell Manufacturing TechnologiesGeorgia Institute of Technology in partnership with the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Puerto RicoCMaT's vision is to enable robust, scalable, low-cost biomanufacturing of high-quality therapeutic cells to bring affordable, curative therapies against incurable chronic diseases to everyone.

Center for Cellular Metamaterials Boston University in partnership with Florida International University and the University of MichiganCELL-MET aims to transform cardiovascular care by combining breakthroughs in nanotechnology and manufacturing with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, while also developing areas of expertise in education, diversity, administration, and outreach.

Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane ResourcesPurdue University in partnership with Northwestern University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Texas at Austin
CISTAR's vision is to create a transformative engineered system to convert light hydrocarbons from shale resources to chemicals and transportation fuels in smaller, modular, local, and highly networked processing plants.

Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment SystemsRice University in partnership with Arizona State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Yale University
NEWT develops high-performance and easy-to-deploy water treatment systems that will broaden access to clean drinking water from a variety of unconventional sources and enable industrial wastewater reuse at off-grid locations.

Center for NeurotechnologyUniversity of Washington in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and San Diego State University
The CNT seeks to identify the engineering principles of neural movement control and sensory processing to enable a new generation of robust, adaptive, closed loop, sensorimotor devices that interact with human nervous systems.

Center for Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal SystemsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in partnership with Howard University, Stanford University, and the University of Arkansas
POETS is improving the electric power density available in tightly constrained mobile environments by integrating novel 3-D cooling circuitry, power converters, and algorithms for smart power management.

Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar TechnologiesArizona State University in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Delaware, the University of Houston, and the University of New Mexico
QESST seeks to transform the existing electricity generation system, making it sustainable, ubiquitous, and multifunctional, by developing photovoltaic and quantum energy converters, which fundamentally alter how energy is used.

Center for Re-Inventing the Nation's Urban Water InfrastructureStanford University in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines, New Mexico State University, and the University of California, Berkeley
ReNUWIt advances new strategies for urban water systems, enabled by technological advances and informed by a deeper understanding of institutional frameworks, to achieve more sustainable solutions to urban water challenges.

Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic SystemsUniversity of California, Los Angeles in partnership with California State University, Northridge; Cornell University; Northeastern University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Texas at Dallas
TANMS works to engineer a revolution in miniature electromagnetic electronics through development of a new class of nanoscale multiferroic materials.

Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission NetworksUniversity of Tennessee-Knoxville in partnership with Northeastern University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Tuskegee University
CURENT is developing a nation-wide transmission grid that is fully monitored and dynamically controlled for high efficiency, high reliability, low cost, better accommodation of renewable sources, full utilization of storage, and responsive load.